Beneath The Surface
by Lilli Vanessi
Summary: When you're fourteen, you think you've got the whole world figured out. Little do you know, you, in fact, know nothing.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: S.E. Hinton owns the Outsiders; I only own Mercedes. **

**AN: OMG, a sisfic! OMG, a CURTIS sisfic! *gasps*....**

**... anyways I've read so many on the site, I thought I might try my hand at one. Hope you like. :)**

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Five minutes wasn't a lot of time—unless, of course, it pertained to a long-standing debate between you and your twin brother. Then five minutes was _huge_ amount of time.

"Don't forget I'm older than you," Ponyboy hissed, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Right. Because passing through the birth cannel a mere ... oh, 300 seconds ... sooner than me gives you an unspoken air of authority."

"Shuddup, Cedie."

"What? Can't admit your _little _sister is right?" I rolled my eyes and kicked the stone in front of me as we walked home. We'd been arguing about pretty much nothing for the past ten minutes. Well, nothing that should've been a concern to him.

"I just don't get it, Cedie. Why would you wanna date George anyway?" Pony grumbled and shot me an annoyed look. "He's an asshole if you ask me."

"Just because you don't like him doesn't mean I can't," I said, glaring right back at him. "And I didn't ask you, so you can shut up, okay?" I shoved him a little and crossed my arms.

He shoved me back—harder than I'd shoved him—and I lost my balance, tumbling straight to the ground. I cringed, biting down on my lip, and mumbled a few curse words.

"Sorry," he offered, extending his hand to help me up, but I knew he didn't mean it. I swatted his hand away and pulled myself up instead. It honestly had hurt, but I was no damsel in distress.

"Apology not accepted." I straightened my skirt and brushed the dirt off of it before sneering at him.

"Suit yourself." He shrugged and we walked the rest of the way not saying a word to the other.

I didn't really have much to say to him. I was angry, and I'd pretty much said all I wanted to. George was my boyfriend, and I didn't really care that Pony didn't like him. I did care, however, that Pony seemed to think it was okay for him to let me know about this hatred every chance he got.

For whatever reason, the two just didn't get along. I couldn't really figure out what it was he didn't like about George, though. They were kinda alike in many ways—to the point where you'd think they'd be great friends. They both ran track and were exceptionally smart. Maybe there was some kind of a competition between them. It was probably jealousy, though. Unlike Pony, George was actually popular because he didn't spend his time doodling and daydreaming. No, George was mature. He certainly didn't whine like Ponyboy did, but then again, I don't think anybody did.

George was a good boyfriend, too, but that was besides the point. The point was that, regardless of what Pony thought about George, it wasn't his place to tell me who I could and couldn't date.

I sighed. It wasn't fair. If he wanted to date someone, no one would give him shit about it. They'd probably congratulate him and say something like, "About time, kid." But not me. No, because I had two x chromosomes and two—well, in some ways, three—older brothers, dating was damn near impossible. Sure, maybe they'd _let _me date, but that privilege never came free from hassle. It was like 20 questions any time I remotely showed interest in a guy. _Who's that? How do you know him? What's he like?_

And Lord help the guy if he ever were to meet one of them. 20 questions for me; 200 for him. Maybe their goal was to scare the boy out of never talking to me again.

For that reason, I'd taken to dating in secret. Well, almost secret. Ponyboy knew about George, but that's because it was almost impossible to keep something from someone in the same class as you, let alone your twin. But he kept his mouth shut about it because I had more than enough dirt on him. Hell, I knew enough to keep him blackmailed through high school and then some.

When we got home, he immediately hit the fridge, snagging the last piece of chocolate cake. He stuck his tongue out at me, and I rolled my eyes. Here he thought he'd really pissed me off when all he did was annoy me with his immaturity. Sure, I liked chocolate cake as much as the next person, but all I had to do was look at my thighs to tell myself I didn't need my brothers were pigs and scarfed every last crumb of food in sight. Best and easiest diet ever, let me tell you.

I ignored his attempts to pester me and went to my room. I took a seat on my bed and thought about what I'd wear for my date tonight. More importantly, though, I should've been thinking about how I'd manage to even _go_ on a date tonight. Neither Soda nor Darry knew about George, and I was certain neither of them would be happy about it if they did. Lucky for me they were both oblivious to the fact that their kid sister was dating, but there was still the issue of getting myself out of the house. I couldn't use the same excuse every time, and whatever excuse I used, I had to make sure it was a plausible one.

I grumbled—everything I was coming up with wouldn't work. I couldn't use Angela Shepard because they weren't too keen on her. They'd never said anything, but I could just tell Darry thought she was a bad influence.

But yet he let Pony hang out with Curly no problems. I swear Curly had to be about a 10 million times worse influence for Pony than Angela was to me. Again, it probably had something to do with being female...

Pony interrupted my thoughts by swinging my door open. "Mercedes."

I jumped a bit and glared at him. "Glory, Pony ... think you could knock?"

"Look, I think I got a plan for tonight that'll make us both happy."

"Spill."

He smirked, clearly satisfied with himself, and I cocked an eyebrow, indicating for him to start talking.

"So, Curly says Tim's having a party tonight, and he wants me to come, but you and I both know Darry ain't gonna wanna go for that."

He paused, like he was looking for a response from me. "Yeah?"

"And you," he continued, " want a date with George."

"Way to state the obvious." I didn't see where this was going, and I had no idea why he was so happy about seemingly nothing.

"Hey!" he hissed. "Lemme finish!"

I crossed my arms and leaned against the back of the headboard, waiting at him to reveal this brilliant plan.

"Anyways, we cover for each other. We'll say we went to the movies with some buddies from school."

"That could work," I agreed.

"All we gotta do is make sure we meet up at the right time and make it home by curfew together."

"Sounds like a plan." I nodded. It was a good idea, even though it was so obvious I wondered why I hadn't thought of it first. But yet, it seemed too simple—too easy, like something could go wrong with it. Still, it sounded like it could work. Darry probably wouldn't suspect a thing, as Pony and I were both big on movies. It was perfect.

I smiled. Pony annoyed the shit outta me sometimes, but I had to admit we made a good pair, even if the only goal was to keep ourselves out of trouble.

I couldn't wait to put the plan into action.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own; I'm not making money; I'm just another teenage lowlife with a fanfiction addiction.

AN: Well, it took me long enough, don't ya think? Anyways, here's chapter 2. I'd love to say 3 will appear sooner, but knowing me and my general trend, no promises. Also, as usual, feel free to review however you see fit. And when I say however, I mean however. Flame, praise, concrit, whatever—I welcome and appreciate it all!

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I sat slouched on a bench near the movie theater where George was _supposed _to pick me up. It'd been nearly an hour since seven o'clock, the time he _claimed _he'd be there. At first it didn't faze me too much. I mean, I figured he was late, like he usually was, but after the first half hour or so, it become abundantly clear that he wasn't _just_ late—no, he'd stood me up.

For lack of a better way to put it, I was fucking furious. After three months—which was a long time for high school romance—of seemingly no bumps or kinks in our relationship, we'd hit a huge knot. And to add insult to the injury, he couldn't have picked a worse night than this one. Maybe karma was just against me, or maybe he really _had _been waiting for the first cold, rainy date night to leave me shivering under a street lamp. Bastard.

Well, it was now eight and completely obvious he wasn't gonna randomly show up anytime soon. I was stuck here, waiting for Ponyboy, because coincidently, this bench just so happened to be the spot where we'd agreed to meet fifteen minutes before curfew.

I sighed heavily even though no one really was in earshot. For the first time in my life, I wanted to thank Darry for giving me such an early curfew. There'd been a huge argument about it, but he'd finally settled on 10:00, an hour earlier than what he originally had given us. If Pony had enough sense to keep his mouth shut about it, it'd still be 11:00, but much to my dismay, I wanted to thank him for that, too.

I glanced over at the theater. The only eight o'clock showing they had was of The Jungle Book, and I'd rather be caught dead than in a theater watching a kid's movie on a Friday night. Besides, unlike Pony, I hated going to the movies by myself.

As luck would have it, the rain kept crashing down and showed no signs of letting up. The Jungle Book was sounding more and more appealing by the minute. I mean, what else was I gonna do for two hours? StAnd out her and freeze to death? At least the theater would be dry and warm...

I slowly dragged myself off the bench and walked towards the entrance. God, here I was, all dressed up and pretty and for what? A ticket for one to a kid's movie.

I approached the ticket booth somewhat reluctantly. Christ, this was embarrassing. At least no one knew me.

"One dollar and twenty cents, please," the man behind the booth said, and I rummaged around my purse for the correct change.

I slapped the money on the booth, grabbed the ticket quickly, and walked in. Before I knew it, I was sitting in an almost empty theater, watching the previews roll. I sighed; this was going to be the longest, most boring movie of my life.

xxx

"Hey, hey!" Pony shook me violently, and I groaned. He had to know how much I hated mornings by now, right?

"Can't you see I'm sleeping, Pony?" I mumbled groggily, shoving him away.

"Woah, I ain't a horse!"

At that moment, I realized the voice hadn't belonged to Pony ... or Soda or Darry even. I opened my eyes quickly to find myself not in my bed but still in the theater seat, staring at a young boy I presumed worked there. I blushed immediately when my eyes met his... God, he was cute.

I groaned inwardly, realizing he had to think I was the biggest kook ever. Here I was, a fourteen year old girl who'd just seen the Jungle Book—by herself, might I add—and fallen asleep. And to add to that, I'd just called him Pony.

"I'm sorry ... I thought you were my brother."

"You call your brother _Pony_?" He stared at me in disbelief—not the first time I'd ever gotten that reaction to my brothers' names.

"Umm, yeah. That's his name." He cocked an eyebrow, and I shifted awkwardly in my seat.

"You see," I said, trying to find the best way to explain my father's uniqueness without sounding like a total freak. "My dad was kinda ... um, weird ... and ..." I gulped and shot out of my seat. "And I just think I'll leave."

I bolted out the doors and ran towards the bench, running straight into Ponyboy. He grabbed my arms and shook me, shooting me a glare I didn't know he had in him. "Where the hell were you? You said you'd be here thirty minutes ago!"

"What the hell, Ponyboy? You tryin' to impersonate Darry or something?"

"Sorry." He dropped most of the anger in his tone and let got of me. "It's just that ... I was kinda worried." His ears grew red at his admission, and he shoved his hands in his pockets.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I _know_ you hate George, but the asshole stood me up, so I never even saw him anyway."

"I know," he sighed.

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" There was no way he could've known.

"Yeah, he was at the party."


End file.
